US Senate unanimously approves resolution in defense of democracy in Brazil
Press release WBO September 28th 2022
Senator Bernie Sanders in San Francisco during the 2019 election campaign. Credit: Gage Skidmore
No senator - not even from the Republican Party - opposed the text presented by Senators Tim Kaine and Bernie Sanders
Document recommends suspending US-Brazil relations in case of attack on the electoral system
The US Senate approved this Wednesday (28th) a resolution “urging the Government of Brazil to ensure that the October 2022 elections are conducted in a free, fair, credible, transparent, and peaceful manner, otherwise the US must reconsider its relations with the Brazilian government and suspend cooperation programs, including in the military area.
The text was proposed by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) — the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere — and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The approval was unanimous, since no senator opposed the text, including members of the Republican Party.
The document says that “the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is experiencing a 335-percent increase in violence directed against political leaders in 2022 relative to 2019" and notes, without mentioning by name, that President Jair Bolsonaro works to "undermine the electoral process in Brazil".
The US Senate asks that the US government to “immediately recognize the outcome 13 of the election in Brazil” and to “review and reconsider the relationship between the United States any government that comes to power in Brazil through undemocratic means, including a military coup.”
Bernie Sanders, at the center, receives a Brazilian delegation at the Capitol Hill, in July 2022. Credit: Maria Magdalena Arréllaga
Sanders is one of the US congressmen who received a delegation of representatives of Brazilian civil society who were in Washington from July 24 to 29, alerting local stakeholders to the threats to democracy and the electoral process in Brazil. In addition to him, Representatives Jamie Raskin (Maryland, a member of the commission investigating 6/1), Hank Johnson (Georgia), Mark Takano (California) and Sheila Cherfilus McCormick (Florida), as well as Senators Patrick Leahy (Vermont, Senate President) and Ben Cardin (Maryland).
The delegation presented its interlocutors – which also included the US State Department and local civil society organizations – two requests:
That these American interlocutors inform themselves about the situation in Brazil, where the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, calls into question the electoral system and the results of the polls, attacking the independence of the Powers, through actions directed against the Justice Electoral Court and the Federal Supreme Court; and
That these same American interlocutors manifest themselves, within their areas of action and influence, recognizing the reliability of the Brazilian electoral system and the validity of the election result, whoever the winner is, in October 2022
At the meeting on July 26, Sanders stated, “What I heard [from the delegation] unfortunately sounds all too familiar to me because of the efforts of [Donald] Trump and his friends to undermine American democracy. I'm not surprised that Bolsonaro is trying to do the same in Brazil. We really hope that the result of the [Brazilian] elections will be recognized and respected, and that democracy will, in fact, prevail in Brazil.”
